Automatic triggering of receipt delivery

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein is a technology for automatically triggering delivery of a digital receipt for a financial transaction based on a previously stored electronic address for receiving digital receipts. In at least some embodiments, the technology includes a digital receipt system working in coordination with one or more merchants&#39; POS device to deliver receipts for current transactions based on a previously stored electronic address from past transactions. The first time a user utilizes a payment card in a transaction, the system associates and stores a user-provided electronic address with the card. The next time the user utilizes the card in a new transaction, the system identifies the card has been used in a past transaction, determines the electronic address associated with the card, and automatically triggers receipt delivery to the electronic address, regardless of the new transaction being with a same or different merchant than the one in the past transaction.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/921,064, filed Dec. 26, 2013. The content of the above-identifiedapplication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Many financial transactions are conducted electronically due to theincreasing popularity and acceptance of the computer and mobile devices.Many merchants have started to provide their customers with receiptselectronically to maintain record of the financial transactions. Theexisting electronic receipt solutions, however, often require aconsiderable amount of activation energy before the actual receipt getsgenerated and delivered to the customer. For the merchants, such highenergy efforts involve, for example, having to generate manually thereceipt every time a transaction occurs, having to identify anappropriate method to deliver the receipt to the customer, and having tobuild their own infrastructure to support electronic receipts. For thecustomers, the high energy efforts involve, for example, having tore-learn and re-setup a new receipt account for every new merchant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more embodiments of the disclosed technology are illustrated byway of example and are not limited by the figures of the accompanyingdrawings, in which like references indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 is an environment in which various embodiments of a receiptdelivery technology can be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a technique associated with thereceipt delivery technology disclosed according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a user interface associated withthe receipt delivery technology according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating various embodiments of a receiptassociated with the receipt delivery technology.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of automaticallytriggering a receipt delivery according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of automaticallytriggering a receipt delivery having fraud protection according to someembodiments.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of automaticallytriggering a receipt delivery based on a receipt delivery preferenceaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system within which aset of instructions, for causing the machine to perform one or more ofthe techniques discussed herein, can be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

References in this description to “an embodiment”, “one embodiment”, orthe like, mean that the particular feature, function, structure orcharacteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present technology. Occurrences of such phrases in thisspecification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment. Onthe other hand, such references are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Overview

Introduced herein is a technology for automatically triggering deliveryof a digital receipt for a financial transaction based on a previouslystored electronic address for receiving a digital receipt (or“electronic receipt”). Using the electronic address stored from one ormore past financial transactions, a new electronic receipt associatedwith a new transaction can be automatically delivered to the user,regardless of the new transaction being with the same merchant from theone or more past transactions.

In at least some embodiments, the disclosed technology includes adigital receipt system that is configured to communicate with one ormore payment transaction systems to enable automatic triggering ofreceipt delivery. The one or more payment transaction systems areassociated with one or more merchants conducting financial transactionswith a customer (i.e., “user,” “consumer”, “payer,” “purchaser,” or thelike). A merchant's payment transaction system can be, for example, apayment card reader attached to a mobile device operating as a point ofsale (POS) system for the merchant's business.

The POS system can be configured to receive and store certaintransaction information from a customer in a transaction. Thetransaction information can include, for example, payment informationsuch as a payment card number (e.g., credit card number), a payment cardname (e.g., first and last name of customer who is a cardholder of thecard), or a payment account address information (e.g., country code).The POS system can receive such transaction information, for example,through a card reader swipe, where data, typically stored on a magneticstripe of the payment card, can be transferred from the card to the POSsystem.

The POS system can receive additional information associated with eachtransaction from a customer's submission. The additional information caninclude an electronic address for a customer to receive a digitalreceipt (or electronic receipt). In some instances, the additionalinformation can include a receipt delivery preference associated withthe delivery address. For example, at a first transaction, when thecustomer uses her credit card for the first time to tender payment(e.g., swipes credit card through a card reader), the POS system,working in coordination with the digital receipt system, can prompt thecustomer whether she wants to receive a digital receipt for thetransaction (i.e., receipt delivery preference), and can ask thecustomer to submit an electronic address (e.g., an email address) forsuch delivery.

After the first transaction, the digital receipt system, working withthe POS system, can associate and store the credit card details with theelectronic address submitted by the customer for future uses. In such anexample, the next time the customer utilizes the same credit card (evenwith a new merchant with whom she has not previously conducted anytransaction), the information from the new transaction gets correlatedwith the stored transaction information, the previously storedelectronic address associated with the credit card is identified, and anew receipt is automatically sent to the electronic address.

The POS system can transmit to the digital receipt system thetransaction information and other related information for receiptdelivery to the customer. The transaction information includesinformation from both a past transaction and a current transaction. Thedigital receipt system analyzes the current transaction information toidentify a matching payment account number (e.g., credit card number)with the past transaction information. From the past transactioninformation having the matching account number, the digital receiptsystem identifies a previously stored electronic address associated withthe matching account number. In response to identifying the deliveryaddress, the digital receipt system sends a digital receipt for thecurrent transaction to the customer.

The following is an exemplary and illustrative scenario of thetechnology presented herein. Consider a scenario where a user usescredit card A1 at a first merchant. At this point, using a userinterface provided at the first merchant's POS system, the user submitsa mobile telephone number for receiving a digital receipt. The firstmerchant's receipt is then sent to the user's phone (e.g., as a textmessage). From that transaction onward, when the user visits a secondmerchant (with whom she has not previously done any transaction), theuse of credit card A1 allows the second merchant's receipt to beautomatically sent to the user's phone.

It is noted that such “automatic” triggering (i.e., initiatinge-delivery of a receipt to an electronic address without requiring entryof the electronic address from the user at the point of transaction) ofthe receipt may happen even without the physical use of the actualcredit card A1 at the second merchant's POS terminal (e.g., card readerswipe). For example, when the user submits the credit card number on aweb page for an internet-based transaction, or uses the credit card in a“card-less” transaction using a digital wallet (or an “e-wallet”), orrecites the numbers of the credit card over a telephone transaction, oruses credit card A1 in any transaction as may be contemplated by aperson of ordinary skill in the art, such uses would still auto-triggerthe receipt assuming that the user has at least once previously used thecredit card and associated that previous transaction with an electronicaddress for e-delivery of receipt.

In at least some embodiments, the POS system, working in coordinationwith the digital receipt system, prompts the customer for a receiptdelivery preference and associates it with the payment card. In someembodiments, the POS system prompts for the receipt delivery preferenceat a first-time transaction in which the payment card is first used. Insome embodiments, the POS system prompts for the receipt deliverypreference at transactions subsequent to the first-time transaction. Thereceipt delivery preference can include whether the customer wants toreceive a digital receipt, whether the customer prefers to receive thereceipt at a particular electronic address (out of many addressespreviously stored), or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the electronic address and the receipt deliverypreference are stored and updated with every new transaction completedusing the payment card. For example, in the scenario above, the secondmerchant's POS system may simply ask if the user would like electronicdelivery of her receipt for the transaction, instead of automaticallysending the receipt to the phone number associated with the credit cardA1. Upon the user affirming the electronic delivery, the digital receiptsystem described herein, working in coordination with the POS system,causes the second merchant's receipt to be sent to the user's phonenumber, without the need for collecting the user's phone number at thesecond merchant's POS system.

In some embodiments, the POS system, working in coordination with thedigital receipt system, prompts for the receipt delivery preferenceevery time a transaction takes place. For example, at the end of atransaction, the customer is automatically prompted whether she wishesto receive a digital receipt; once the customer selects to receive thereceipt, the digital receipt is sent automatically to the customer atthe stored electronic address, without the customer being prompted tosubmit an electronic address.

In some embodiments, the POS system prompts for the receipt deliverypreference only when there exist more than one stored electronicaddresses that correspond to the customer's payment card. For example,the customer has submitted, from past transactions, several emailaddresses for receiving the digital receipt. In such example, the POSsystem, working in coordination with the digital receipt system, promptsthe customer to select one of the email addresses as the preference forreceipt delivery. In another example, two customers, who share the samepayment account, utilize their respective payment cards (with sameaccount number, but different payment card names), and submit twodifferent electronic addresses (e.g., an email for customer X and aphone number for customer Y) in separate transactions X and Y. In suchan example, when customer Y conducts a new transaction, the digitalreceipt system analyzes transactions Y and Z information to identify theappropriate payment card name and a corresponding electronic address,and causes a receipt to be automatically delivered to that address.

In some embodiments, the POS system prompts for the receipt deliverypreference based on certain criteria associated with the transaction,such as payment amount threshold or account holder names associated withthe payment card. For example, the POS system, working in coordinationwith the digital receipt system, prompts for a receipt deliverypreference when the transaction payment exceeds $1000; otherwise, thereceipt is automatically delivered without prompting for the preference.In another example, the POS system prompts for a receipt deliverypreference when the transaction involves a payment card having twodifferent cardholder names (e.g., husband and wife), where the customeris prompted to select his/her own delivery address.

In at least some embodiments, the digital receipt system triggerstransmission of the receipt based on fraud criteria associated with thetransaction. The fraud criteria can include, for example, a geographicallocation, a payment amount, a frequency of use, or any combinationthereof. For example, where a payment amount associated with a currenttransaction exceeds a threshold (e.g., $1000), the digital receiptsystem triggers the receipt to be generated and delivered to allcardholders associated with a payment card; that is, all jointcardholders receive a receipt for the current transaction at theirrespective electronic addresses. In another example, the digital receiptsystem delivers the receipt using a particular delivery addressaccording to a stored receipt delivery preference of the customer inresponse to the purchase amount exceeding the threshold. In suchexample, the customer receives a receipt via both an email message and atext message, as specified by her submitted preference.

The technology disclosed provides many advantages in the realm ofdigital receipts. One advantage of the technology disclosed is providingan efficient, effortless way for automatic triggering of receiptdelivery to an electronic address without requiring entry of the addressfrom a customer at the point of transaction. Once a customer hassubmitted transaction information (along with an electronic address) toa merchant, the digital receipt system causes a receipt to beautomatically delivered to the electronic address for every futuretransaction with the same merchant and/or any other new merchant, solong as the new merchant's POS system is in communication with thedigital receipt system. That is, there is no prerequisite or activationenergy needed for every new transaction the customer carries out with amerchant in order to receive a digital receipt.

Another advantage of the technology disclosed is that the storedinformation can be automatically updated with every new transactionconducted. For example, for a customer who has submitted an emailaddress in transaction A and later submits a phone number in transactionB, the digital receipt system, working with one or more POS systems, canstore and utilize both submissions for receipt delivery. In anotherexample, a customer can submit a receipt delivery preference in additionto an electronic address for receiving the receipt. Such receiptdelivery preference is also stored and updated with every newtransaction.

Yet another advantage of the technology disclosed is providing fraudprotection. The digital receipt system can be configured according tofraud criteria. As will be discussed in more details below, in responseto a fraudulent activity detected, a digital receipt can beautomatically delivered to the appropriate venue and/or the appropriateparties based on the fraud criteria.

Other aspects and advantages of the disclosed technique will becomeapparent from the following description in combination with theaccompanying drawings, illustrating, by way of example, the principlesof the claimed technique.

Illustrative Embodiments

FIG. 1 is an environment 100 in which various embodiments of a receiptdelivery technology can be implemented. The environment 100 includes amerchant transaction system 102, a customer device 104, and a digitalreceipt system 106, all of which are connected via a network 110. It isnoted that the architecture shown in FIG. 1 is only an example of anenvironment in accordance with the technology introduced here. Further,the merchant transaction system 102, the customer device 104, and thedigital receipt system 106 in FIG. 1 can have more or fewer componentsthan shown, or a different configuration of components. The variouscomponents shown in FIG. 1 can be implemented by using hardware,software, firmware or a combination thereof, including one or moresignal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

The merchant transaction system 102 can be any general-purpose computingdevice, such as a mobile handheld device (e.g., smartphone, tablet,e-reader, etc.) or a personal computer (e.g., desktop), on which amerchant utilizes to conduct financial transactions with customers. Themerchant transaction system 102 can include a payment card reader forreceiving payment card information (e.g., credit card details, debitcard details, smart card details, etc.) from the customers to authorizepayment in exchange for services and/or goods. It is noted here that theterm “customer” is used interchangeably with “user,” “payer,”“purchaser,” or the like throughout the written description with nointended change in meaning. Any of these terms is used to refer to aparty tendering payment in a financial transaction between the party anda merchant.

The merchant transaction system 102 is capable of executing anapplication, such as a payment application having various userinterfaces for receiving payment card data (“transaction data” or“transaction information”) and other related data associated withpayment transactions between the merchant and one or more customers. Themerchant transaction system 102 can collect the transaction informationfrom a particular payment card using the payment card reader. Forexample, the merchant transaction system can read information from themagnetic stripe of the payment card via a swipe of the card through thecard reader.

A payment card's magnetic stripe typically includes three tracks forstoring different types of information associated with the payment card.One track is typically encoded with information reserved for the bankthat issued the payment, such as the payment card number (e.g., primaryaccount number), the cardholder's full name, a country code, and anexpiration date for the card. A second track is typically used to storethe payment card number, the country code, and the card's expirationdate. A third track is typically used to both read and write data, suchas an authorized spending amount or currency units and an encryptedpersonal identification number.

In embodiments, the merchant transaction system 102 can choose tocollect the payment card's information from all tracks, from only onetrack, or from any combination thereof. For example, the merchanttransaction system 102 collects only from a particular track that hasonly the credit card number. In another example, the merchanttransaction system 102 collects from one or more necessary track(s) toobtain the cardholder's name listed on the payment card in addition tothe credit card number. In yet another example, the merchant transactionsystem 102 collects from the necessary track(s) to obtain the creditcard number, the cardholder's name, and address information associatedwith the credit card account.

In some embodiments, the merchant transaction system 102 collectsadditional data associated with the transaction instance in which thepayment card is used, including, for example, a geographical locationwhere the transaction takes place or a time of use of the payment card.Using the payment card information along with the additional data, themerchant transaction system 102 can provide “transaction information”associated with each payment card to assist the digital receipt systemin enabling automatic receipt delivery. That is, the merchanttransaction system 102 can communicate to the digital receipt system 106the transaction information collected from a first card swipe to enableautomatic receipt delivery in subsequent card swipes.

It is noted that the transaction information (e.g., credit card number,purchase location, etc.) may be obtained even without the physical useof the payment card at a physical location using the card reader, solong as the transaction information is collected via any deviceimplementation in communication with the merchant transaction system102. For example, a customer can submit a credit card number to pay foran internet-based transaction using an online web page portalimplemented by the merchant transaction system 102. In another example,the customer uses the credit card in a “card-less” transaction using adigital wallet (or an “e-wallet”), and the digital wallet is connectedto the merchant transaction system 102. In yet another example, thecustomer recites the numbers of the credit card over a telephonetransaction, and an operator associated with the merchant transactionsystem 102 enters the transaction information into the system 102. Theinformation collection may be implemented using any other transactionmethod that can be contemplated by a person of ordinary skill in the artbased on the present disclosure.

The customer device 104 can be any general-purpose computing device withdata processing and communication capabilities, such as a handheldmobile device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, an e-reader, etc.) or apersonal computer (e.g., desktop). The customer device 104 can beutilized by a user, such as a customer, for receiving a digital receipt108 from the digital receipt system 106. The customer device 104 iscapable of executing an application, such as an email application or atext messaging application, for receiving the digital receipt 108. Thedigital receipt 108 can be in various formats, including, for example,an email format, an image format (e.g., a picture received via textmessage, email, etc.), a text message format, and the like. The customerdevice 104 can include a display screen (e.g., liquid crystal display)for displaying the digital receipt 108. The display screen can be partof a touchscreen.

The digital receipt system 106 can be any general-purpose computingserver system with data processing and communication capabilities. Thedigital receipt system 106 works in coordination with the merchanttransaction system 102 to facilitate automatic triggering of receiptdelivery. The digital receipt system 106 can be in communication withone or more merchant transaction systems 102. Such communication isuseful, for example, to enable processing of multiple automatic receiptdeliveries to a customer, regardless of the merchant the customer isvisiting. That is, the customer does not have to set up a new accountwith a new merchant in order to receive a digital receipt automatically,as long as the customer has already submitted an electronic address viaa particular merchant transaction system 102 that is connected to thedigital receipt system 106. The digital receipt system 106 stores theelectronic address from the past transaction and utilizes it toautomatically trigger receipt delivery for future transactions.

In some embodiments, the digital receipt system 106 can generateinstructions for execution by the merchant transaction system 102 infacilitating the automatic triggering of the receipt delivery. Forexample, the digital receipt system 106 generates instructions forexecuting one or more user interfaces associated with a paymentapplication implemented on the merchant transaction system 102. Infacilitating the automatic triggering of receipt delivery, the digitalreceipt system 106 communicates with the merchant transaction system 102to receive data signals indicative of one or more financial transactionstaking place at the merchant transaction system 102. The data signalscan include data associated with a transaction, including transactioninformation and/or additional information including an electronicaddress for receiving digital receipts associated with the payment cardused in the transaction. The data signals may be received over a periodof time associated with the one or more transactions in which the samepayment card is utilized (e.g., a first time transaction, subsequenttransaction, beginning and/or end of a particular transaction, etc.).

In response to receiving a particular data signal indicative of a firstfinancial transaction in which a payment card is first utilized by acustomer, the digital receipt system 106 can send certain instructionsassociated with the transaction, such as causing the merchanttransaction system 102 to prompt a customer for an electronic address toreceive a digital (or electronic) receipt for the transaction. Uponreceiving the electronic address, the digital receipt system 106 canassociates the address with one or more pieces of information from thetransaction information (e.g., associating the electronic address with acredit card number used in the transaction, with a cardholder's name,and/or with an account address associated with the credit card). As willbe discussed in further details below, in a future transaction with thesame payment card, the digital receipt system 106 can trigger a receiptto be automatically delivered to the customer using the associatedelectronic address.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a technique 200 associated withthe receipt delivery technology disclosed according to some embodiments.For the purpose of illustration, let the technique 200 include a set ofpast financial transactions 202 (i.e., “payment transactions 1-N,” whereN is the number of transactions occurring in the past), and furtherinclude a set of present, or current, financial transactions 204 (i.e.,“payment transactions N+1,” where N is the number of transactionsoccurring in the past).

In the set of past financial transactions 202, the digital receiptsystem 212 receives, from a merchant's POS system, transaction data210A-N associated with a payment card used by a consumer 206 to tenderpayment to the merchant. That is, the merchant's POS system transmits(or allows access to) the transaction data 210A-N to the digital receiptsystem 212 to enable receipt delivery. In some embodiments, the digitalreceipt system 212 can be the digital receipt system 106 of FIG. 1.

The set of past transactions 202 are particular transactions in which adigital receipt 214 has been sent to a consumer, e.g., to a consumerdevice, such as a smartphone 216, a laptop 218, or a desktop 220. Thetransaction data 210A-N include information associated with the pasttransactions 202 conducted between the consumer 206 and one or moremerchants. The transaction data 210A-N can include payment cardinformation along with additional information associated with thecorresponding transaction. For example, the additional information caninclude a geographical location or a timing at which the transactiontook place. The digital receipt system 212 can use any of the additionalinformation, in addition to the payment card information, associatedwith the past transactions 202 to automatically trigger delivery, ortransmission, of a receipt 224 to an appropriate recipient in a futuretransaction 204.

From the set of past financial transactions 202, the digital receiptsystem 212 can obtain an electronic delivery address (or “electronicaddress”) 208 provided by a consumer 206 for receiving one or moredigital receipt(s) associated with a payment card used in one or morepast transactions. The electronic address 208 can be an email address, amobile telephone number, or any other electronic address at which theconsumer 206 can receive a digital receipt, as contemplated by one ofordinary skill in the art.

The consumer 206 in FIG. 2 can represent more than one account ownerassociated with a primary account number, where the primary accountnumber is shared among the account owners using their respective paymentcards having different cardholder names. In some embodiments, thedigital receipt system 212 stores and associates the electronic address208 based on the cardholder name. For example, consumer 206 can be ahusband and a wife sharing the same debit card (having the same debitcard number with different cardholder names), where each party hasutilized his/her own copy of the debit card to make several purchases.For each transaction carried out by each party using the debit card,transaction data 210A-N is received and stored by the merchant's system,and communicated to (or accessed by) the digital receipt system 212.Further, for each transaction, an electronic address 208 can beprompted, or requested from the party making the transaction. In such anexample above, the electronic address 208 can be different for the debitcard, depending on which cardholder, e.g., the wife or the husband, isusing the debit card.

The digital receipt system 212 analyzes the transaction data 210A-Ncollected in the set of past transactions 202 for use in futuretransactions 204, i.e., the payment transactions N+1. In a particularnew payment transaction 204, the digital receipt system 212 receives newtransaction data 222 and analyzes that data to find a matching paymentcard number with the past transaction data 210A-N. Upon finding a subsetof the set of transaction data 210A-N having matching payment cardnumber with the transaction data 222, the digital receipt system 212analyzes each of the subset of transaction data 210A-N to identify theelectronic address 208 associated with that payment card number. Theelectronic address can be, for example, an email submitted for thatpayment card number in the past transactions 210A and 210B.

It is noted that the transaction data 210A-N and transaction data 222can be in connection with two different merchants with whom the consumer206 carries out a payment transaction. For example, a transaction data210A can be data associated with a transaction X1 conducted between theconsumer 206 and merchant M1, and the transaction data 222 can be dataassociated with a transaction X2 conducted between the consumer 206 andmerchant M2. In such an example, upon occurrence of the transaction X2with merchant M2, the digital receipt system 212 automatically causesdelivery of the digital receipt 226 to the customer 206 using theelectronic address stored from the transaction X1, despite the customer206 having never conducted a transaction with the merchant M2 before thecurrent transaction 204.

In some embodiments, the digital receipt system 212, before triggeringdelivery of the receipt, performs additional analysis to identify acardholder name associated with the matching payment card number in eachof the past transactions (e.g., 210A and 210B). In such embodiments, thedigital receipt system 212 compares the cardholder's name on the paymentcard used in the current transaction 204 with each cardholder's nameidentified in the past transactions 202 (e.g., 210A and 210B) to find amatching cardholder's name. For the particular past transaction datathat contains the matching cardholder's name, the digital receipt system212 extracts the associated electronic address stored for thatparticular past transaction 202, and transmits the current receipt 224using data associated with that electronic address (e.g., emailaddress).

In the example above, after analysis of the transaction data 201A-N andtransaction data 224, the digital receipt system 212 automaticallytriggers delivery of the digital receipt 224 for the new transaction204. The receipt for the transaction 204 is sent, for example, to theemail address that corresponds only to the cardholder's name of thecurrent transaction, and not to both the husband and the wife. In someembodiments, only the primary account number is collected and stored,with no consideration given to the cardholder's name on a particularpayment card being utilized in a particular transaction. In suchembodiments, the digital receipt system causes the receipt to bedelivered the electronic address 208 previously stored and associatedwith the payment card number, regardless of the cardholder's name.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a user interface 300 associatedwith the receipt delivery technology according to some embodiments. Theuser interface 300 can be implemented on a POS system utilized by apayee (e.g., merchant) to conduct financial transactions with a payer(e.g., customer). The user interface 300 can be generated usingcomputer-executable instructions received from the digital receiptsystem 106 of FIG. 1. The user interface 300 illustrates an exampleprompting of a receipt preference from a payer.

Consider a scenario at the end of a payment transaction, when paymenthas been tendered by the payer, the POS system, working in coordinationwith the digital receipt system disclosed herein, prompts the payer fora selection of an electronic address for receiving digital receipts. Theselection can include receiving a digital receipt via a text message302, where the POS system prompts the payer to submit a telephone number(i.e., one type of electronic address). The selection can includereceiving the digital receipt via an email message 304, where the POSsystem prompts the payer to submit an email address. The selection caninclude no digital receipt, where the payer can select the option 306not to enter an electronic address and skip receiving a digital receipt.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating various embodiments of a digitalreceipt associated with the receipt delivery technology. In someembodiments, a digital receipt system can deliver the digital receipt,indicative of a current transaction, to an appropriate recipient via atext message 400. In such embodiments, the digital receipt systemdelivers the receipt using a stored telephone number from one or morepast transactions associated with the current transaction. In someembodiments, the receipt can be delivered via an email message 402. Insuch embodiments, the digital receipt system delivers the receipt usingan email address from the one or more past transactions.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating a process 500 of automaticallytriggering a receipt transmission according to some embodiments. Theprocess 500 can be performed by the digital receipt system 106 of FIG.1, or the digital receipt system 212 of FIG. 2, working in conjunctionwith the merchant transaction system 104 of FIG. 1. At step 502, thedigital receipt system receives from a merchant transaction system anindication of a first financial transaction, such as a paymenttransaction, between a merchant and a consumer. The indication includesfirst transaction information associated with the first transaction,where a first payment card is used in the transaction. The firsttransaction information can include payment card information, includingan account number associated with the first payment card, a nameassociated with the cardholder of the payment card, and a country codeassociated with the payment card financial account. For example, thefirst transaction information includes payment card informationassociated with the first payment card (i.e., “first paymentinformation” or “first payment card information”).

In some embodiments, the first transaction information can also includeinformation external to the payment card, where the external informationis detected and stored with the payment card information at the time ofthe transaction. The external information can include, for example, ageographical location (e.g., GPS coordinates, location name, etc.)associated with the occurrence of the transaction. The externalinformation can include, in another example, timing associated with theoccurrence of the transaction (e.g., time of day card is being used).The external information can include, in yet another example, afrequency of use of the payment card associated with the transaction.

Such external information can be useful in detecting suspiciousfraudulent activities. For example, where a payment card is usednumerous times repeatedly in a short period, or where the charge amountson the payment card is considerably high, the card has likely beenstolen. Using the external information, the digital receipt system cantrigger receipt delivery to one or more electronic addresses in responseto the detected fraudulent activity. For example, the digital receiptsystem is configured to send an electronic receipt to all account holdernames associated with a card account in response to detection offraudulent activity.

At step 504, a first user is prompted to submit an electronic addressfor receiving a first receipt associated with the first transaction. Theprompting can appear on a display of a POS device associated with themerchant transaction system. The prompting can be caused by the digitalreceipt system sending computer-executable instructions to the merchanttransaction system.

In some embodiments, the POS device prompts for a receipt deliverypreference in addition to the electronic address. The receipt deliverypreference may include, for example, whether the first user would liketo receive an electronic, or digital, receipt. The receipt deliverypreference may include, in another example, whether the first user wouldlike to specify a preferred electronic address (out of several submittedby the first user) for receiving the digital receipt. The receiptdelivery preference may include, in yet another example, whether thefirst user would like to specify certain preferred electronic addresses(out of several submitted by the first user) for receiving the digitalreceipt in case of fraudulent activity.

At step 506, the digital receipt system associates the electronicaddress with the first transaction information and stores suchassociation. This is useful, for example, for allowing the digitalreceipt system to identify the appropriate electronic address forreceipt delivery in future transactions having transaction informationthat correlate to the first transaction information. The correlation caninclude a payment card number of the new transaction matching to thestored number associated with the first payment card. It is noted thatother information extracted from a payment card, other than a cardaccount number, can be utilized by the digital receipt system. Forexample, an encoded personal pin can be utilized for identifyingcorrelations between the first payment card and any other payment cards(e.g., credit card of a joint account holder) utilized in futuretransactions.

In some embodiments, the digital receipt system associates the receiptdelivery preference, in addition to the electronic address, with thefirst transaction information. Using in part the receipt deliverypreference, the digital receipt system causes the automatic delivery ofthe receipt to an appropriate electronic address (based on thepreference).

At step 508, the digital receipt system receives a second transactioninformation associated with a second transaction in which a secondpayment card is used. At step 510, the digital receipt system analyzesthe second transaction information to identify a payment card number andan electronic address previously stored and associated with that paymentcard number. In particular, the digital receipt system identifies thepayment card number from the second transaction information to bematching with the payment card number from the first transactioninformation. The digital receipt system then identifies one (or more)electronic address that has been associated with the payment card numberfrom the first transaction.

In some embodiments, if the digital receipt system identifies two ormore electronic addresses that are associated with the payment cardnumber, then the system proceeds to compare the cardholder names betweenthe current transaction information and a prior transaction information.Using the name comparison, the digital receipt system identifies aparticular electronic address that corresponds to the cardholder nameindicative of the user using the payment card at the currenttransaction, and triggers for receipt delivery to that particularelectronic address. For example, if a first transaction informationcontains user X (with electronic address X) and a second transactioninformation contains user Y (with electronic address Y), the digitalreceipt system will send a receipt for a third transaction information,which has the name of user X, to the electronic address X.

In some embodiments, if the digital receipt system identifies two ormore electronic addresses that are associated with the payment cardnumber, and determines that only one cardholder name corresponds to themultiple electronic addresses (e.g., two prior transactions exist withtwo different addresses submitted, but only one cardholder name), thedigital receipt system proceeds to take into consideration the receiptdelivery preference associated with each of the multiple electronicaddresses, as discussed above at step 504. In some embodiments, thedigital receipt system analyzes an immediately previous (or most recentpast) transaction prior to the current transaction to identify theuser's receipt delivery preference, and select an appropriate electronicreceipt based on that previous transaction.

In some embodiments, the digital receipt system analyzes all pasttransactions prior to the current transaction and identify the user'sreceipt delivery preference. For example, while the user may havespecified in the immediately previous transaction to receive the receiptat address X, in the rest of the past transactions, the user specifiedall digital receipts to be sent to address Y as the default electronicaddress. In such an example, the digital receipt system causes thereceipt to be sent to address Y.

At step 512, in response to identifying the matching information, thedigital receipt system analyzes the first transaction information todetermine a receipt preference that is associated with the matchinginformation. In some embodiments, the receipt preference is associatedwith the first transaction information in step 506. At step 514, thedigital receipt system triggers the second receipt to be transmittedautomatically to a user associated with the second transaction using theidentified receipt preference.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a process 600 of automaticallytriggering a receipt transmission having fraud protection according tosome embodiments. The process 600 can be performed by the digitalreceipt system 106 of FIG. 1 working in conjunction with the merchanttransaction system 102 of FIG. 1.

At step 602, the digital receipt system receives a set of transactiondata associated with a set of past transactions in which a payment cardis used. The digital receipt system receives the set of transaction datafrom one or more merchants' POS systems in order to facilitate automaticreceipt delivery for the merchants and their respective consumers. Thetransaction data can include payment data associated with the paymentcard and external data associated with the set of past transactions(i.e., data collected at the past transactions, where the data isexternal to the payment card's internal information such as locationinformation). The set of transaction data may or may not include datashared with a current transaction (i.e., “matching data”). For example,a subset of the transaction data can match with data from a particulartransaction (e.g., matching account number) while another subset of thetransaction data can match with data from a different transaction (e.g.,matching cardholder names in addition to matching account number).

At step 604, the digital receipt system receives new transaction dataassociated with a new transaction in which a new payment card is used.The new transaction data includes payment data associated with the newpayment card, such as a payment card account number. Other payment datamay include, for example, a cardholder's name. Similar to step 602, thedigital receipt system receives the new transaction data from aparticular merchant's POS system. The particular merchant in the newtransaction may or may not be the same merchant in the set of pasttransactions.

At step 606, the digital receipt system analyzes the new transactiondata to identify a payment card number. Using the card number, thedigital receipt system identifies one or more previously storedelectronic address(es) associated with the card number by analyzing theset of transaction data. In particular, the digital receipt systemidentifies any subset of transaction data that correlate to the newtransaction data. For example, from a set of data from five pasttransactions, the digital receipt system identifies three pasttransactions having payment data correlated to the payment dataassociated with the current transaction. The correlated data includes,for example, a matching account number, where the matching accountnumber may have different cardholder names (e.g., a parent and a childsharing the same account).

In response to identifying the subset of transaction data, the digitalreceipt system identifies the one or more electronic addresses from thesubset. For example, the digital receipt system identifies twotransactions having matching primary account number, and two differentelectronic addresses corresponding to the two transactions. Consider ascenario where in a past transaction X, a user A submits an emailaddress to receive a digital receipt, and in a later transaction Y, theuser A submits a telephone number to receive a digital receipt. In someembodiments, the digital receipt system is configured to prioritize thetransactions, i.e., to utilize the particular electronic addresssubmitted from the most recent past transaction. In the example above,the digital receipt system will cause the receipt to be delivered to thetelephone number of user A.

In some embodiments, the digital receipt system is configured to furtheranalyze each past transaction data to identify for any other matchingdata, including a matching payment card name (i.e., matching name of thecardholder) and determine the appropriate electronic addresscorresponding to that name. For example, where transaction X is carriedout by user A while transaction Y is carried out by user B, and user Aand user B share the same account number for the same payment card, thedigital receipt system will only cause the receipt to be delivered touser B′s electronic address for a current transaction conducted by userB.

At step 608, the digital receipt system analyzes whether a fraudcriterion associated with the new transaction exceeds a particularthreshold. Whether or not the fraud criterion exceeds the thresholddetermines the electronic address(es) to which the digital receiptsystem sends out the digital receipt, as indicated in step 610. Thefraud criterion can be associated with a purchase amount. For example, afraud alert is raised if the purchase amount associated with the newtransaction is over $2000. In some embodiments, when the fraud alert israised, the digital receipt system sends a receipt indicative of the newtransaction to all stored electronic addresses associated with thepayment card, regardless of the cardholder name associated with eachelectronic address.

In some embodiments, when the fraud criterion exceeds the threshold, thedigital receipt system sends the receipt to all receipt addressesassociated with a cardholder of the payment card. For example, where acardholder has given his phone number in a past transaction, but submitsan email address to receive his digital receipt in a later transaction,the digital receipt system sends a receipt to both the email address andthe phone number to alert the cardholder of potential fraud. In someembodiments, when the fraud criterion exceeds the threshold, the digitalreceipt system sends the receipt to a particular cardholder and not theremaining cardholder(s). For example, when a child, who shares the sameaccount with a sibling and his parent, makes a purchase exceeding thethreshold amount, the parent, in addition to the child himself, receivesthe receipt, and the sibling sharing the account does not receive areceipt.

At step 610, the digital receipt system triggers transmission of a newreceipt according to an appropriate electronic address associated withthe new transaction based on the fraud criterion.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating a process 700 of automaticallytriggering a receipt delivery based on a receipt delivery preferenceaccording to some embodiments. The process 700 can be performed by thedigital receipt system 106 of FIG. 1 working in conjunction with themerchant transaction system 102 of FIG. 1.

At step 702, the digital receipt system disclosed herein receives asignal indicative of a new transaction associated with a payment cardbeing used at a merchant's POS device. The signal includes transactiondata associated with the new transaction. The transaction data caninclude payment data associated with the payment card and external dataassociated with the new transaction.

At step 704, the digital receipt system identifies one or moreelectronic addresses associated with the new transaction data. Forexample, the digital receipt system determines a payment card accountnumber from the new transaction data and identifies, from pasttransaction data, a previously stored electronic address associated witha payment card having the same account number. In some instances, thedigital receipt system may identify more than one previously storedelectronic addresses associated with the payment card used in the newtransaction.

At step 706, the digital receipt system prompts for a receipt deliverypreference from a user using the payment card in the new transaction. Inparticular, the digital receipt system causes the merchant to requestfrom the user at the merchant's POS device the receipt deliverypreference for receiving the digital receipt. In some embodiments, thePOS device, working in coordination with the digital receipt system, maysimply ask the user whether he wishes to receive a digital receipt forthe new transaction. In some embodiments, the POS device, working incoordination with the digital receipt system, may also display severalelectronic addresses identified in step 704 and ask the user whether theuser wants to receive the digital receipt at a particular electronicaddress (from the displayed addresses). In some embodiments, the POSdevice, working in coordination with the digital receipt system, mayalso display the one or more electronic addresses identified in step704, and prompts the user whether the user wants the digital receipt toenter a different electronic address (from the one(s) displayed) forreceiving the digital receipt. Any combination of the prompting ofreceipt delivery preference may be executed at step 706.

At step 708, the digital receipt system receives the receipt deliverypreference submitted by the user in step 706. At step 710, if the userselects to receive the digital receipt, the digital receipt systemtriggers the receipt to be delivered to the electronic addressidentified in step 704, without further need for the user to submit adelivery address. In some instances, where there exists severalelectronic addresses (i.e., as displayed to the user) and the userselects a particular electronic address (or multiple electronicaddresses), the digital receipt system triggers the receipt to bedelivered to that particular electronic address(es).

Regarding the processes 500, 600, and 700, while the various steps,blocks, or sub-processes are presented in a given order, alternativeembodiments can perform routines having steps, or employ systems havingsteps, blocks or sub-processes, in a different order. Further, somesteps, sub-processes or blocks can be deleted, moved, added, subdivided,combined, and/or modified to provide alternatives or sub-combinations.Each of these steps, blocks or sub-processes can be implemented in avariety of different ways. Also, while the steps, sub-processes orblocks are at times shown as being performed in series, some steps,sub-processes, or blocks can be performed, instead, in parallel or atdifferent times, as will be readily recognized by a person of ordinaryskill in the art in light of the disclosure herein. Additionally, anyspecific numbers noted herein are only by example as alternativeimplementations can employ differing values or ranges.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 800 withinwhich a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform one ormore of the techniques discussed herein, can be executed. The computersystem 800 can be the digital receipt system 106 of FIG. 1, or thedigital receipt system 212 of FIG. 2, or the merchant transaction system102 of FIG. 1, or the customer device 104 of FIG. 1. The computer system800 includes a processor 802, a memory 804, non-volatile memory 806, anetwork interface 808, input/output (I/O) devices 810, and a drive unit812. Various common components (e.g., cache memory) are omitted forillustrative simplicity. The computer system 800 is intended toillustrate a hardware device on which any of the components depicted inthe example of FIGS. 1-5 (and any other components described in thisspecification) can be implemented. The computer system 800 can be of anyapplicable known or convenient type. The components of the computersystem 800 can be coupled together via a bus 820 or through some otherknown or convenient device.

This disclosure contemplates the computer system 800 taking any suitablephysical form. As example and not by way of limitation, computer system800 can be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip (SOC), asingle-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, acomputer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computersystem, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, amainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a server, or a combination of two or more ofthese. Where appropriate, computer system 800 can include one or morecomputer systems 800; be unitary or distributed; span multiplelocations; span multiple machines; or reside in a cloud, which caninclude one or more cloud components in one or more networks. Whereappropriate, one or more computer systems 800 can perform withoutsubstantial spatial or temporal limitation one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein. As an example and not byway of limitation, one or more computer systems 800 can perform in realtime or in batch mode one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. One or more computer systems 800 can perform atdifferent times or at different locations one or more steps of one ormore methods described or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

The processor 802 can be, for example, a conventional microprocessorsuch as an Intel Core microprocessor or an Intel Itanium microprocessoror a Motorola power PC microprocessor or a SPARC architecture processor.One of skill in the relevant art will recognize that the terms“machine-readable (storage) medium” or “computer-readable (storage)medium” include any type of device that is accessible by the processor.

The memory 804 is coupled to the processor 802 by, for example, a bus.The memory 804 can include, for example, random access memory (RAM),such as dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). The memory can belocal, remote, or distributed.

The bus 820 also couples the processor 802 to the non-volatile memory806 and the drive unit 812. The non-volatile memory 806 can be, forexample, a magnetic floppy or hard disk, a magnetic-optical disk, anoptical disk, a flash memory such as NAND flash memory or NOR flashmemory, a read-only memory (ROM) such as a CD-ROM, a programmableread-only memory such as EPROM or EEPROM, a magnetic or optical card, oranother form of storage for large amounts of data. Some of this data isoften written, by a direct memory access process, into memory duringexecution of software in the computer 800. The non-volatile storage canbe local, remote, or distributed. The non-volatile memory is optionalbecause systems can be created with all applicable data available inmemory. A typical computer system will usually include at least aprocessor, memory, and a device (e.g., a bus) coupling the memory to theprocessor.

Software is typically stored in the non-volatile memory and/or the driveunit. Indeed, for large programs, storing the entire program in memorycan not even be possible. Nevertheless, one should understand that forsoftware to run, if necessary, the software is moved to a computerreadable location appropriate for processing, and for illustrativepurposes, that location is referred to as the memory in thisspecification. Even when software is moved to the memory for execution,the processor will typically make use of hardware registers to storevalues associated with the software, and local cache that, ideally,serves to speed up execution. As used herein, a software program isassumed to be stored at any known or convenient location (fromnon-volatile storage to hardware registers) when the software program isreferred to as “implemented in a computer-readable medium.” A processoris considered to be “configured to execute a program” when at least onevalue associated with the program is stored in a register readable bythe processor.

The bus 820 also couples the processor 802 to the network interfacedevice 808. The interface 808 can include one or more of a modem ornetwork interface. A person of ordinary skill will appreciate that amodem or network interface can be considered to be part of the computersystem 800. The interface 808 can include an analog modem, ISDN modem,cable modem, token ring interface, satellite transmission interface(e.g., “direct PC”), Wi-Fi interface, or other interfaces for coupling acomputer system to other computer systems. The interface can include oneor more input and/or output devices.

The I/O devices 810 can include, for example, a keyboard, a mouse orother pointing device, disk drives, printers, a scanner, and other inputand/or output devices, including a display device. The display devicecan include, for example, a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), or some other applicable known or convenient displaydevice. For simplicity, this specification assumes that controllers ofany devices not depicted in the example of FIG. 8 reside in theinterface.

The computer system can have one Bus or multiple Buses. The bus 820 caninclude, for example, a system bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect(PCI) bus or PCI-Express bus, a HyperTransport or industry standardarchitecture (ISA) bus, a small computer system interface (SCSI) bus, auniversal serial bus (USB, USB 2.0, USB 3.0), IIC (I2C) bus, anInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 1394bus, also called “Firewire,” a QuickPath Interconnect bus, a ThunderBoltinterconnect bus, a DisplayPort interconnect bus or its companionstandards Mini DisplayPort (mDP), Direct Drive Monitor (DDM), EmbeddedDisplayPort (eDP), Internal DisplayPort (iDP), Portable Digital MediaInterface (PDMI), Wireless DisplayPort (wDP), and Mobility DisplayPort(MyDP), an HDMI interconnect bus, a DVI bus.

In operation, the computer system 800 can be controlled by operatingsystem software that includes a file management system, such as a diskoperating system. One example of operating system software withassociated file management system software is the family of operatingsystems known as Windows® from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,and their associated file management systems. Another example ofoperating system software with its associated file management systemsoftware is the Linux™ operating system and its associated filemanagement system. The file management system is typically stored in thenon-volatile memory and/or drive unit and causes the processor toexecute the various acts required by the operating system to input andoutput data and to store data in the memory, including storing files onthe non-volatile memory and/or drive unit.

SUMMARY

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the technology has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the technology to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovespecification.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein can beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the technology can also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus can be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it can comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programcan be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storagemedium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which can be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification caninclude a single processor or can be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the technology can also relate to a product that isproduced by a computing process described herein. Such a product cancomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium and can include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of triggering transmission of electronicreceipts by a digital receipt system for payment transactionsinstantiated on point-of-sale (POS) devices of multiple payees, themethod comprising: receiving, at the digital receipt system and from afirst POS device associated with a first payee, first transaction dataassociated with a first payment card utilized in a first paymenttransaction between the first payee and a consumer, wherein the firsttransaction data is transferred from the first payment card to the firstPOS device by a swipe or a dip of the first payment card through or intoa first card reader connected to the first POS device; obtaining, by thedigital receipt system, an electronic address from the consumer bycausing the first POS device associated with the first payee to displayan interface that prompts the consumer to submit the electronic addressfor receiving a first electronic receipt for the first paymenttransaction; creating, by the digital receipt system, an association forthe consumer by associating the electronic address with the firsttransaction data and a receipt delivery preference specified by theconsumer; storing, by the digital receipt system, the association in amemory to enable electronic receipt delivery to the consumer in a futuretransaction with either the first payee or another payee associated withthe digital receipt system; receiving, at the digital receipt system andfrom a second POS device associated with a second payee, secondtransaction data associated with a second payment card utilized in asecond payment transaction between the second payee and the consumer,wherein the second transaction data is transferred from the secondpayment card to the second POS device by a swipe or a dip of the secondpayment card through or into a second card reader connected to thesecond POS device; based on the second transaction data, determining, bythe digital receipt system, whether the second payment card used in thesecond payment transaction at the second POS device associated with thesecond payee is a same card as the first payment card used in the firstpayment transaction at the first POS device associated with the firstpayee; in an event that the second payment card is the same card as thefirst payment card: identifying, by the digital receipt system, theelectronic address associated with the second payment card using theassociation based on the first payment transaction involving the firstpayment card; and based on the identified electronic address obtainedduring the first payment transaction, sending, by the digital receiptsystem, a second electronic receipt for the second payment transactionto the identified electronic address without requiring the consumer torequest the second electronic receipt, without requiring the consumer toregister with the digital receipt system, and without requiring theconsumer to submit the electronic address at the second POS deviceassociated with the second payee during the second payment transaction.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic address comprises atleast one of an email address for email receipt delivery, or a telephonenumber for text message receipt delivery.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein determining whether the second payment card is the same card asthe first payment card comprises: identifying, by using the firsttransaction data received in the first payment transaction and thesecond transaction data received in the second payment transaction, amatching payment card number between the second payment card utilized inthe second payment transaction and the first payment card utilized inthe first payment transaction, the first transaction data received fromthe first POS device associated with the first payee in the firstpayment transaction, the second transaction data received from thesecond POS device associated with the second payee in the second paymenttransaction.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: comparing apurchase amount associated with the second payment transaction to atransaction threshold; in response to the purchase amount exceeding thetransaction threshold, identifying one or more cardholders associatedwith the second payment card; retrieving one or more additionalelectronic addresses and receipt delivery preferences corresponding tothe one or more cardholders and previously stored in association withthe second payment card; and causing the second electronic receipt forthe second payment transaction to be further transmitted to the one ormore cardholders, the second electronic receipt being transmitted usingan associated electronic address corresponding to the one or morecardholders.
 5. A system, comprising one or more processors; and one ormore computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed bythe one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to performoperations comprising: receiving, at a digital receipt system and from afirst POS device associated with a first payee, first transaction dataassociated with a first payment card utilized in a first paymenttransaction between the first payee and a consumer, wherein the firsttransaction data is transferred from the first payment card to the firstPOS device by a swipe or a dip of the first payment card through or intoa first card reader connected to the first POS device; obtaining, by thedigital receipt system, an electronic address from the consumer bycausing the first POS device associated with the first payee to displayan interface that prompts the consumer to submit the electronic addressfor receiving a first electronic receipt for the first paymenttransaction; creating, by the digital receipt system, an association forthe consumer by associating the electronic address with the firsttransaction data; storing, by the digital receipt system, theassociation in a memory to enable electronic receipt delivery to theconsumer in a future transaction with either the first payee or anotherpayee associated with the digital receipt system; receiving, at thedigital receipt system and from a second POS device associated with asecond payee, second transaction data associated with a second paymentcard utilized in a second payment transaction between the second payeeand the consumer, wherein the second transaction data is transferredfrom the second payment card to the second POS device by a swipe or adip of the second payment card through or into a second card readerconnected to the second POS device; based on the second transactiondata, determining, by the digital receipt system, whether the secondpayment card used in the second payment transaction at the second POSdevice associated with the second payee is a same card as the firstpayment card used in the first payment transaction at the first POSdevice associated with the first payee; in an event that the secondpayment card is the same card as the first payment card: identifying, bythe digital receipt system, the electronic address associated with thesecond payment card using the association based on the first paymenttransaction involving the first payment card; and based on theidentified electronic address obtained during the first paymenttransaction, sending, by the digital receipt system, a second electronicreceipt for the second payment transaction to the identified electronicaddress without requiring the consumer to request the second electronicreceipt, without requiring the consumer to register with the digitalreceipt system, and without requiring the consumer to submit theelectronic address at the second POS device associated with the secondpayee during the second payment transaction.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein the electronic address comprises at least one of an emailaddress for email receipt delivery, or a telephone number for textmessage receipt delivery.
 7. The system of claim 5, the operationsfurther comprising: comparing a purchase amount associated with thesecond payment transaction to a transaction threshold; in response tothe purchase amount exceeding the transaction threshold, identifying oneor more cardholders associated with the second payment card; retrievingone or more additional electronic addresses corresponding to the one ormore cardholders and previously stored in association with the secondpayment card; and causing the second electronic receipt for the secondpayment transaction to be further transmitted to the one or morecardholders, the second electronic receipt being transmitted using anassociated electronic address corresponding to the one or morecardholders.
 8. The system of claim 5, the operations furthercomprising: prior to sending the second electronic receipt, promptingand receiving from the consumer a receipt delivery preference associatedwith the first electronic receipt; and sending, based at least in parton the receipt delivery preference, the second electronic receipt to theidentified electronic address.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein thereceipt delivery preference comprises at least one of: a preference toreceive the second electronic receipt at a new electronic address; or apreference to receive the second electronic receipt at multipleelectronic addresses, the multiple electronic addresses including theelectronic address from the first transaction and one or more newelectronic addresses.
 10. The system of claim 5, wherein determiningwhether the second payment card is a same card as the first payment cardcomprises determining whether the first payment card and the secondpayment card are associated with a same payment card number.
 11. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein determining whether the second payment cardis a same card as the first payment card comprises determining whetherthe first payment card and the second payment card are associated with asame payment cardholder name.
 12. The system of claim 5, whereindetermining whether the second payment card is a same card as the firstpayment card comprises determining whether the first payment card andthe second payment card are associated with a matching account name. 13.One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructionsexecutable by one or more processors, wherein the instructions programthe one or more processors to perform acts comprising: receiving, at adigital receipt system and from a first POS device associated with afirst payee, first transaction data associated with a first payment cardutilized in a first payment transaction between the first payee and aconsumer, wherein the first transaction data is transferred from thefirst payment card to the first POS device by a swipe or a dip of thefirst payment card through or into a first card reader connected to thefirst POS device; obtaining, by the digital receipt system, anelectronic address from the consumer by causing the first POS deviceassociated with the first payee to display an interface that prompts theconsumer to submit the electronic address for receiving a firstelectronic receipt for the first payment transaction; creating, by thedigital receipt system, an association for the consumer by associatingthe electronic address with the first transaction data; storing, by thedigital receipt system, the association in a memory to enable electronicreceipt delivery to the consumer in a future transaction with either thefirst payee or another payee associated with the digital receipt system;receiving, at the digital receipt system and from a second POS deviceassociated with a second payee, second transaction data associated witha second payment card utilized in a second payment transaction betweenthe second payee and the consumer, wherein the second transaction datais transferred from the second payment card to the second POS device bya swipe or a dip of the second payment card through or into a secondcard reader connected to the second POS device; based on the secondtransaction data, determining, by the digital receipt system, whetherthe second payment card used in the second payment transaction at thesecond POS device associated with the second payee is a same card as thefirst payment card used in the first payment transaction at the firstPOS device associated with the first payee; in an event that the secondpayment card is the same card as the first payment card: identifying, bythe digital receipt system, the electronic address associated with thesecond payment card using the association based on the first paymenttransaction involving the first payment card; and based on theidentified electronic address obtained during the first paymenttransaction, sending, by the digital receipt system, a second electronicreceipt for the second payment transaction to the identified electronicaddress without requiring the consumer to request the second electronicreceipt, without requiring the consumer to register with the digitalreceipt system, and without requiring the consumer to submit theelectronic address at the second POS device associated with the secondpayee during the second payment transaction.
 14. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein theelectronic address comprises at least one of an email address for emailreceipt delivery, or a telephone number for text message receiptdelivery.
 15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media ofclaim 13, wherein determining whether the second payment card is thesame card as the first payment card comprises: identifying, by using thefirst transaction data received in the first payment transaction and thesecond transaction data received in the second payment transaction, amatching payment card number between the second payment card utilized inthe second payment transaction and the first payment card utilized inthe first payment transaction.
 16. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 13, the acts further comprising:comparing a purchase amount associated with the second paymenttransaction to a transaction threshold; in response to the purchaseamount exceeding the transaction threshold, identifying one or morecardholders associated with the second payment card; retrieving one ormore additional electronic addresses corresponding to the one or morecardholders and previously stored in association with the second paymentcard; and causing the second electronic receipt for the second paymenttransaction to be further transmitted to the one or more cardholders,the second electronic receipt being transmitted using an associatedelectronic address corresponding to the one or more cardholders.
 17. Theone or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, the actsfurther comprising: prior to sending the first electronic receipt,prompting and receiving from the consumer a receipt delivery preferenceassociated with the first electronic receipt; and sending, based atleast in part on the receipt delivery preference, the first electronicreceipt to the identified electronic address.
 18. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein the receiptdelivery preference comprises at least one of: a preference to receivethe second electronic receipt at a new electronic address; or apreference to receive the second electronic receipt at multipleelectronic addresses, the multiple electronic addresses including theelectronic address from the first transaction and one or more newelectronic addresses.
 19. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 13, wherein determining whether thesecond payment card is a same card as the first payment card comprisesdetermining whether the first payment card and the second payment cardare associated with a same payment cardholder name.
 20. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein determiningwhether the second payment card is a same card as the first payment cardcomprises determining whether the first payment card and the secondpayment card are associated with a matching account name.